John and Myra Craig from South Queensferry who were one of the first to take part in Scotlands DNA project

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JOHN and Myra Craig had already spent some time researching their family trees when they first heard about Scotland’s DNA.

The retired couple, from Edinburgh, had traced their roots across the Irish Sea.

John, 71, said: “Both of our families are from Ireland originally as Myra’s father was Irish and her mother’s parents came from Ireland.

“My family is more complicated as my mother died when I was seven and where she was from was vague.

“I’d thought she was English but we found from census records that my mother’s father was Irish.

“Things ground to a halt from there but, when we saw an advert for Scotland’s DNA, we thought it would be an interesting thing to do.”

John's mum and dad

John said: “When we got the results back, we really were stunned. I had Germanic roots, which are common around present-day Germany and Holland.

“But this DNA marker can be traced back through thousands of years across central Europe, all the way to Mongolia and Kazakhstan. That was on my father’s side.

“It was explained to us that as the Roman Empire expanded 2000 years ago, a lot of tribes in central Europe were taken in and fought with or against the Romans.

“The Germanic tribes were much further east than they are today, but were swept up and some came to the east of England and Scotland.”

Myra’s results were even more unexpected.

John said: “Myra had the Yenesei DNA marker, which can be traced to Siberia.

“At the time, it came as a shock to the testers as well as us, as they only knew of one other woman in Scotland with this marker.

“Since then, we’ve done a bit of research and found out about the Yenesei River and the tribe. Apparently there are only 1500 people left who can speak their native language.”

John as a boy

Myra, 70, said: “I knew my family was Irish, so being told my genetic roots came from Siberia was a huge shock. It makes you think.

“You think about the amount of mass movement there has been and you realise that people nowadays are moving about much more than they ever did before.”

Like many people who had their DNA tested, the couple were left wondering about the long journeys their ancestors would have undertaken thousands of years ago.

And having explored some of the world’s more far-flung locations, Myra believes she may have inherited some of the travelling bug.

She added: “We’ve been to places such as China, Tibet and Nepal, and we’re off to Bhutan in November.

“We were also in Russia when Gorbachev first opened things up, so there must be something in our genes telling us to visit these places.

“Having said that, I haven’t got plans to go to Siberia. I’m not a fan of the cold.”

Gordon Bishop

RETIRED head teacher Gordon Bishop knew little about his roots before having his DNA tested.

But the 76-year-old, from Glasgow, was keen to find out more.

He said: “I was curious about my origins but I hadn’t done much family tree research.

“As far as I knew, they had been in the West Lothian area, and that was all the information I had.”

Men inherit genetic markers from both parents, a Y-DNA marker from their father and a mitochondrial DNA marker from their mother.

Gordon said: “On the Y side, I have the Pretani DNA marker, who have been native to Great Britain for about 9000 years.

“They were the first people to re-colonise Britain after the last ice age, which I think is fascinating.

“But what was more interesting was my mitochondrial DNA. My mother derives her inheritance from the Levant in the Middle East.

“Her DNA markers indicate either Ashkenazi Jewish or Palestinian. It seems rather ironic that it’s difficult to distinguish between the two.”

Gordon had no reason to expect he would have a marker than can be traced to the Middle East.

He said: “I was also told there was a surprising number of people with this DNA in Scotland, which means there would have been people who made it here all the way from the Middle East thousands of years ago.

“Apparently there was a greater movement of women, while the male population was more static, but it’s difficult to think of how my female forebears got to Scotland.”

Gordon said the results have piqued the interest of his two sons and he is doing further research.